Is this shell erosion on my Black Racer Nerite Snail?

[wormbo]

Hi! Brand new aquarium owner. Found a random 2.5 gallon tank on the street that I wanted to set up just for plants, as I've been thinking about it for awhile. It had gravel and some plastic decorations in it already, so after a week of it sitting on my table I set it up to run with tap water until I could get proper supplies, cuz why not ?

One day later there is a Black Racer Nerite Snail crawling around. Someone abandoned their snail on the street to die. ): We are off to a rough start, as I'm attempting to learn as much as possible ASAP in attempt to keep him alive.

He's a hardy fella, but his shell has looked weird to me since he appeared. Is the off white, striped part at the bottom of shell part of the pattern, or is it chipped off, eroded? If it's damaged, what do I do for him???

 

[fishorama]

I have limited nerites snail experience, but I "think" that's just its "foot" showing along the bottom. IME they will only eat a few foods like soft green or brown diatom algae & not much else in the way of prepared food. Try leaving the lights on for a long while, say, 12+ hours to grow the kind of algae it will eat, You can also try putting a bowl of rocks outside in the sun to grow green algae for it.

What are your tap water parameters for KH, GH, nitrate etc? Snails don't live well with low GH IME.

Good luck! I hope someone else answers you soon.

 

[MuddyWaters]

Yeah I had some nerite snails in soft water and I killed them. If you have soft water, I'd suggest putting chunks of Rubble Zone in there to give them calcium. There are also calcium laden foods that you can get, but not sure nerites will eat them based on fishorama's post.

I'm managing to keep some rabbit snails alive in a tank I have with very soft water by adding Rubble Zone and a cuttle bone floating around. The rabbit snails chow on the leaves I add to the tank for tannins. I also have a mystery snail in my main tank that is also soft water, but not as soft as the other one I mentioned. For that one I have a couple of chunks of Rubble Zone in the filter and feed the snail some of that calcium food. He does ok, although if I'm not diligent, his shell will show it- The pic below is when I realized he was in my tank- I thought he had died long before. I had Rubble Zone in the tank the whole time, but obviously he was not getting enough calcium. I would imagine that the nerite snail's shell would look similar if lacking calcium.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello and welcome to the forum. Nerite snails don't live long even in the best water conditions. At least this has been my experience. If you get a year or so, you're doing pretty well. I've had them live in excess of two years, but this is the best I've done. Age will take it's toll on any living thing. I suggest keeping the water as clean as possible and add some spirulina flakes to a good flaked food like the Optimum products for good health. This is really all I can think of.

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